Tuesday, April 7, 2009

SANGRAAL "Gemini Wars" Demo Tape

In early 1997 Edwin from WICKED WITCH hit us up about releasing a GEHENNA record. We would like that and because we were going to do a European tour with CATHARSIS we suggested that the record was a split 12" with them. We told Ed that we didn't have any new GEHENNA material, but we had a tape of the show we played at CBGB on the Eat, Fight, Fuck tour. Ed was all for it and the record came out great. Just before we went on the tour we recorded a couple GEHENNA songs comps,and at the same time we recorded the M.F.T.S. side for our split with 46 SHORT. We had some extra time in the studio so we tried to get some roughs down for some stuff that "Misery" Mickey Rhodes Featherstone (GEHENNA's bass player) had wrote. It was fucking vicious as fuck, and I knew right then and there that Rhodes' new project was gonna be fucking cruel and destroy some lives. We talked and all decided to send a copy to Edwin. When we saw him in Europe he told us that he wanted to release a record. So it was set in stone right then and there. Rhodes told him we would record something as soon as we finished writing the record. When we got back to the states everybody went their separate ways for a moment. 2 months later while I was living in Phoenix I got a tape from Rhodes (who was in Reno at the time) in the mail. It was a fucking horribly brilliant and masterpiece, of cruel guitar riffs with no drums or vocals. It sounded like a hurricane tearing the planes from the sky and ripping buildings apart. After I got done listening to the tape I looked in the envelope and saw there was a piece of paper with some of the strangest and most dark lyrics I had ever read on it. I turned the page over and it said "I'm ready when you are Mike. Let's go." 2 weeks later I moved to Orange and so did Rhodes. Yoches was already there so we started practicing at his house. I thought we were going to write some stuff, but I was wrong. Rhodes had EVERYTHING. He knew where he wanted the drum fills, how the bass line would go and had lyrics for all of the songs. We got ahold of our friend Rusty Cavender who recorded a ton of stuff for friends of ours and had offered us a spot to record plenty of times before. We went in and recorded the whole demo in 6 hours (we were 3 hours late cause Rhode and Yoches were getting some dope). We mixed the recording a couple of weeks later. We released about 35 copies of it to friends and played a show. Rhodes said we had to rerecord the whole thing, cause he had an idea for some other songs and he wanted me to actually play bass instead of drinking beer and punching the strings. I said O.K. and that was when we did "Wolves Of Armageddon" LP.Anyhow...Check out the laughs on "Long Haired Kings". They're WAAAAAYYYY better on this demo.

I'm not too sure you've listened to this demo and the album back to back. They are completely different recordings of the songs (I know because I was there and I play in the band and you would know if you just take a moment to read the post). The demo is far more primitive and a bit slower. The Wolves Of Armageddon LP has a 4 extra songs on it (The Conquerors, Morbid Tales, Name Me Master, Beyond The Astral) and a far superior recording.

The new SANGRAAL - Fatal Coordinates 7" will be out soon. The test presses came back and the records should arrive from the plant shortly.

GEHENNA Get Fucked Up is one song and was posted for a day. It was a one day posting. You can buy the record when it comes out. If you would like to buy any GEHENNA merchandise, send me an email. If you want to download it for free, sorry. Too late. If you don't have time to read this I don't really give a shit. Microwave generation, download demanding folks need to understand the most important thing.... Perfection takes time. Wait with patience. "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...PT II" took 14 years, and in the words of Raekwon: "It's coming out when I want it to come out man. Know what I'm sayin? Y'all nigga's just sit back and get ready for it man. Cause this is some real motion picture shit. Know what I'm sayin'? Straight up the date is the date. It's coming when I tell it to come."

I was just explaining that the demo, and album are different. I wrote that in the post. I also explained that the one day posting fro the GEHENNA song Get Fucked Up was a one day posting. I also wrote that in the post.It wasn't aggression. It was just facts man.When the records are out I will post all of the ordering information, so it might be a good idea to follow the blog and read the updates. I don't update things real often so it should be easy to follow.Read along.Comment after downloading.